A day after the Metro Manila Council (MMC) meeting held a meeting to discuss the next quarantine status for the National Capital Region (NCR) after August 20, San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora said that the mayors have yet to reach a consensus regarding their recommendation due to various factors.
"Unang una, tumataas po ang bilang ng mga kaso, tumataas ang utilization rate ng mga ospital, dumadami ang mga namamatay. Totoo po yan and those are all based on data (First of all,COVID cases are increasing, the hospital utilization rates are increasing, and the number of deaths are also increasing. These are all true and based on data)," Zamora said in an interview with DZMM on Wednesday.
"Ang sitwasyon natin ay napakahirap sapagkat ito ang unang pagkakataon na tayo ay napasailalim sa ECQ ng may Delta variant (Our situation is very difficult because this is the first time we were placed under ECQ (Enhanced Community Quarantine) with the Delta variant)," he added.
The mayor said the MMC is still finding the proper balance between the economy and mitigating the number of cases and deaths.
"Basically, ang choices base sa pagpupulong kahapon, kung manatili tayo sa ECQ, talagang mahihirapan tayong lahat in terms of business, economy, at kabuhayan. Kung mag downgrade naman tayo at magluwag ng konti, posibleng mas maraming mamatay (Basically, our choices based on the meeting yesterday, if we're going to remain under ECQ, we will all definitely have a difficult time in terms of business, economy, and livelihood. If we're going to downgrade and ease down a little bit, the number of deaths could possibly increase)," Zamora said.
"Kasalukuyan pong nagkakaroon ng botohan ngayon at personally, pinagiisipan kong mabuti sapagkat either way, meron talagang effect to sa atin, so we are trying to find a balance. Anong klaseng pagbabalanse ang pwedeng gawin na hindi naman mahirapan masyado ang ating mga mamamayan sa ating kabuhayan at ekonomiya and at the same time, hindi naman maging dahilan na madami pang mamatay (We are currently voting and personally, I'm critically thinking about it because either way, it really will have an effect on all of us. So we are trying to find a balance: What kind of balance can we do wherein our citizens will not have difficulties in terms of businesses and economy and at the same time, will not cause a lot of deaths)," he added.
Zamora said the MMC may have a recommendation within the day as the IATF will have a meeting on Thursday, August 19.
He also emphasized that the MMC is only recommendatory and the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) will still have the final decision.